GRAY
We don't know their home planet is
guilty. It could
have been a rogue
operation.

SHEER
I don't care.

GRAY
Attacking won't help.

SHEER
I don't care. I've seen my planet destroyed,
and I need to kill something big.

PETERS
Should we try to find reinforcements?

SHEER
No. This is something I want to do.

GRAY
Shouldn't we at least make a last report?

Sheer takes out a communications
device and turns it on. He speaks into it.

SHEER
This is Captain Thomas Sheer of the
Transport Guild, broadcasting on all
frequencies. Returning from hyperspace,
we arrived in our solar system just in time to
see an alien spacecraft appear. It lwas on a
direct course to crash straight into the Earth,
when it sent out a ray and the entire Earth
was vaporized, boiled away. The ship kept
going and we followed. We fired, seemed
to hit it at least twice, and it stopped dead in
its tracks, absolutely still. We entered the
ship and found no life forms - just a sticky
coating on everything,
which could have been
the crew. If it is, they got off easy. I have no
idea where
this ship came from, but if we can
find out,
we'll do our best to make them pay.

Sheer turns off the
communications device.

GRAY
Captain, we have no idea how anything on
this ship operates.

SHEER
We'll learn. Do you have something else
you want to do? We have no place to
go!

GRAY
There are colonies.

SHEER
Earth was my home! I'd rather lose my life
than know I didn't do everything I could to
avenge my family and friends.

GRAY
Everyone on this ship is dead.

SHEER
That's not enough!

GRAY
Okay.

SHEER
We're not a military outfit. Any of you want
to leave, this is your chance to take our ship
and go.

GRAY
No.

PETERS
I'm staying.

KRUTHERS
This looks like a control panel.

PETERS
Before we go anywhere, we need to see
where we're going. Let me clean off some
of this sticky stuff.

Peters takes out a rag and cleans
off the control panels and a viewer screen. The viewer screen can be the
fourth wall (the space between the actors and the audience). Peters could
have a sponge concealed in the rag, and when he rubs
the viewer screen, he could squeeze red liquid out of the sponge, making it
appear he is wiping something red off the viewer screen.

SHEER
Okay, let's press something and try our luck.

Sheer pushes something on the control
panel.

SHEER
Anyone feel anything?

Kruthers checks his scanner.

KRUTHERS|
Stasis field is activated.

SHEER
Let's try something else.

Sheer twists something on the
control panel. Lighting and sound effects go berserk.

SHEER
What the hell?

PETERS
Where are we?

KRUTHERS
Hyperspace?

SHEER
Doesn't look like any hyperspace I've ever
seen!

GRAY
Turn it of!

Sheer turns off the switch.
The berserk lighting and sound effects stop.

SHEER
Okay. This is normal hyperspace. Look
familiar?

KRUTHERS
Yes sir.

GRAY
Navigation seems to be locked on to some
location.

PETERS
Maybe we're headed for their home world.

SHEER
We'd better find the weaponry controls.
Let's see what this does.

Sheer moves another piece of the
control board. Everyone panics at what they see, shouting out the next
five lines almost at once!

GRAY
Dropping from hyperspace.

PETERS
Planet! Planet!!!!

KRUTHERS
Dead ahead!

GRAY
Look out!

PETERS
Impact!

Sheer desperately moves things on
the control panel. There's a flash of light and a sound effect.

KRUTHERS
Where'd it go? We were headed straight
for it!

PETERS
We destroyed it.

GRAY
Earth.

SHEER
No.

GRAY
I saw it. That was Earth we just destroyed.

PETERS
You're crazy.

SHEER
Earth was already destroyed. We saw it.

GRAY
Now we've seen it twice. Each time, we
were responsible.

KRUTHERS
That's impossible.

GRAY
Now we know where we were traveling when
none of us knew where we were. We were
going back in time.

SHEER
That doesn't make any sense.

GRAY
You saw it too! We were about to fly into
the Earth, you hit that switch, and we destroyed
it.

PETERS looks into the view
screen.

PETERS
This does look like our solar system. Wait
a second. Someone's following us.

There's the sound of a futuristic
ray hitting the alien ship is hit. As the ship is hit, everyone is thrown off balance. Kruthers falls against the control panel,
hitting a switch. Everyone speaks quickly.

PETERS
You idiot!. You turned off the stasis
field! Turn it on again! Turn it on!

GRAY
If we stop now, we'll splatter....

KRUTHERS
I don't know which switch!

PETERS
Turn on the stasis field!

SHEER
Don't touch anything!!!

Kruthers reaches for a switch he
hopes will turn on the stasis field. Blackout! There's
the sound of a futuristic ray hitting a space ship, followed by what sounds like
a hand slapping a wall. Then a sound of dripping. Then silence. A moment of darkness.

When the lights come up, no one
is one the stage. This is the interior of an alien
spacecraft. Enter Kruthers. He looks around. Everything is
very strange.

KRUTHERS
Weird.

He turns on a scanner, reads it
and calls out.

KRUTHERS
It's okay, Captain.

Enter Captain Sheer and Peters
and Gray. They look around at the unfamiliar surroundings. All are
grim.

SHEER
Readings?

KRUTHERS
Nothing alive, not even a microbe.

The play has started again.
Perform as much as you want. If you wish, you can bring up the houselights
and let the audience leave while the entire play is performed again, but there's
a danger someone will stay in his or her seat to see how many times you'll go
through the damn thing.

The
author grants all internet uses to print these scripts for their own, personal,
non-commercial use. No other use may be made without the author's
permission. Without limiting the foregoing,
the plays may not be staged without the author's express permission.